News article

Chekhovskie Medvedi have impressive win over Metalurg

Seeking a group phase knockout berth, Metalurg had little room for mistakes against a winless Chekhovskie.

But the hosts had an unexpected slow start, and ultimately, their game never got going, allowing the Russian "Bears" to earn their first win of the season.

Medvedi's last win in the competition was on the 19th of November last year.

Left back Dmitrii Santalov was Medvedi's top scorer, with seven goals.

Metalurg are now three points behind Motor, who are in second place.

GROUP D

HC Metalurg (MKD) vs Chekhovskie Medvedi (RUS) 26:29 (12:17)

With an eight-game losing streak, and no win in the VELUX EHF Champions League since 19 November 2016, it seemed as if Chekhovskie were on the brink of tying their 11-game winless streak, which was their worst run without a win in the European top flight competition.

The Russian champions were the underdogs in the game against Metalurg. Despite this, it took them six and a half minutes to score their first goal, as Chekhovskie took a surprising 5:1 early lead, that prompted coach Aleksandar Jovikj to take a timeout for Metalurg.

With young right back Dmitri Santalov in superb form, the Russian side managed to keep their opponents at bay 8:3, after 14 minutes.

As the hosts desperately tried to make a comeback, they improved their offense, but their defence could not find the answer to Medvedi's attacking prowess. The Russians took a surprising17:12 lead at half time.

There was no comeback for Metalurg, except for a 3:0 run that brought the hosts to within a three-goal difference, 21:18.

But the young Medvedi side managed to keep their composure and they got their first win after 351 days in the VELUX EHF Champions League, 29:26.

Chehovskie Medvedi’s head coach Vladimir Maximov felt that his team’s defence was key in the match:

“We won because we had good defence right from the start of the game. We used every mistake Metalurg made in their attacks. We used the fact that Metalurg played a lot of attacks without a goalkeeper. At one stage, we had scored four goals on empty net. I need to say that our goalkeeper was also very good.”